(I have just found a trial paintshop programme on the work computer, have been playing with it!)

The end of February, beginning of March, and it's nearly the end of winter knitting. My thoughts should be turning towards spring and summer knits, especially with all of the new magazines out. Yet I think that I'll stick with another month of winter knitting.

Knitting last month seems very unproductive. I haven't finished anything other than socks. No jumper-a-month! I didn't even bother with a February to-do list!

So aims for MarchFinish the six sock kal striped sock. I'm a few inches into the foot of this toe up sock. Second sock. Should be a piece of cake.Finish the Debbie Bliss Ribbed Swing Jacket. This might be achievable, if I get my arse into gear. The back's done, and I've started a sleeve. These sleeves are big babies, wider and longer than each front. There's a massive turn up cuff and it's a flared shaping (I think). I should aim for a piece each week. I do hope that there's not a nasty surprise lurking at the end - such as an enormous folded collar! I never read a pattern before I start knitting. Finish the back of Agnes and one sleeve! Dear me, this is slow going! I've knitted a few rows and am about 7cm away from the armholes. Then there's all that moss stitch. Then there's a short sleeve, all moss stitch. If I don't persevere with this I can see it ending up with UFO status. I'm just not enjoying knitting this.Finish Sockapaloozer socks. Deadline is 15th March, and I'm confident that I can do this! I was worried about running out of yarn, so the leg is a couple of inches shorter than specified. The ribbing makes the sock look as if it's childsize, but my pal should be able to get these on, though they'll be fitted! I had plenty of yarn left as well. I'm an inch into the second sock now.

Finished, outdoor photo taken on a very overcast day. (Chair courtesy of the pub next door, yes, I braved the public to snap this one. I think it shows the colours fairly accurately. This is LL Flame. It's the same colour as the Fibretrends Ribbed socks, though my skeins seem to have a lot of yellow.

(I'm having problems with typepad uploading images, but you can click on this for a larger view)

Some things I have my eye on:

Lucy, from Rowan 37. This is in cotton tape, a very quick knit but also very heavy to wear.

Elspeth again from 37. Calmer (which is the attraction), short sleeved, and probably not something that would suit me, but I can always find a willing recipient!Chigao, ditto above. Buzz - cotton tape.

There are also a few designs in the Classic series, featuring the new Rowan yarns, but I am trying not to buy new stash. IK has a lot of interesting designs. Unfortunately, I'm at work and the mag's at home, so I've trawled through online sources and memory, for these maybes:A good bias - shrug

Bi-colour brioche - love this one

And the wrapover shrug thing. I think Debbie Bliss Alpaca silk might work with this one!

February 26, 2005

I've been a bad blogger; it's been 4 days since my last post. I've a head cold, and it's knocked me for six; no enthusiam for knitting, no blogging, just sleeping at every opportunity. I can't believe that I had 10 1/2 hours sleep last night (and still felt dozy this afternoon). I'm hoping this is a cold, and not a result of stopping smoking!

Knitting has been progressing slowly. I have, however re-knitted the back of the ribbed swing jacket. Instead of frogging, I've just knitted from the first attempt. I'm now pretty confident that I'll have enough yarn. Partial back of first attempt, 2" into the raglan shaping = entire back of second attempt less one ball of yarn.

That's the one remaining skein beside the back. The 'swing' in the jacket is obtained by two decrease rows, and one change of needle size.

It's a tedious knit, other yarns are calling. I really would like to get this out of the way before Spring Knitting. Those blasted new season magazines are out, and there's some great looking designs worthy of another look. I'm also tempted by the Spring Phildar (click on the numbers underneath for a close up of the designs). I love their baby books!

I wanted to show you a finished first sock, but I've been playing cards all afternoon on the computer! I have a few more inches before the toe shaping. I've left my IK at work, and the pattern copy is lost somewhere, so I shall be doing my own thing on the toe shaping, as usual. Progress so far:A slight pooling on the heel, but nothing drastic. I'm still worried about the skinniness of the leg. I've increased another four sts on the foot, but I think the leg will be snug. And short. I was worried about running out of yarn!

Hopefully, tomorrow I will finish this. And start the second sock on Monday evening (skein at work of course).

This also gives me time to work on my six sock kal striped sock, which hasn't seen the light of day this past week!

#1 completed.

I'm trying to get organised with albums, but it's such a tedious process, trying to cull photos from this blog. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, I'll get organised and have sorted them all out. In the meantime, I'll publish what I've done so far.

February 23, 2005

Not much progress: it's the time of year when we all catch colds, and I've been far too tired to knit the past couple of days. I have turned the heel though.They're looking a bit skinny, so now I'm worrying about whether they will fit or not! The colour has slightly pooled on the heel, but no problem, it looks fine, and I'm not that fussed, as long as they stop pooling in a few more rounds!

I keep forgetting to take a photo of my ribbed jacket, though it looks much like the old one, just not as wide!

You must go and look at at Anita's butterfly - just gorgeous, that flower just finishes it off. And whilst you're at it, have a look at Polly's Kira, in worsted weight!

Anyone else disappointed with Rowan 37? I've had several reads now, and still, there's only half a dozen designs that I quite like. Nothing that involves beads, inappropriately placed pockets (for the more endowed, older woman), intarsia, coy models, kid silk haze or skirts. I'm much more enamoured by IK - lots of things I would just love to knit. I'm also quite impressed with the new DB book showcasing her new yarn, Cathay.

And for anyone in Oxford Street, I noticed last friday that John Lewis had a good stock of DB yarns and Noro in stock. They may have put the mountain of DB yarns in their store room, but it's in!

February 21, 2005

Remember this?The ribbed monster, aka Debbie Bliss Ribbed Swing Jacket. This has been resting for several weeks. It was a yarn monster too, eating up yarn. Saturday I decided to either frog it or finish it. My row tension is perfect, but my stitch tension, despite going down a needle size, is out.

A very wide ribbed monster, held up by Chris, who is 6'1!

(Yes, yes, for effect it's held sideways, and we all know that gravity will make the rib stretch out)

So it's breedingIt's that tiny bit of knitting at the top of the ribbed monster. I can't quite bring myself to frog, so I'm just pulling the big one out as I knit the little one. This is saturday noon, by last night I'd knitted about 8 inches. Quick going. I've decided not to go down on the needle size, but just knit the smaller size (ahem, 32" bust, which I've not been since early puberty).

The jury's still out on sockapaloozer, but I have a provisional sock started. It's looking ok, the ribbing is showing, though I'm not too sure on the garter stitch bits.Lorna's laces, Flame.

February 18, 2005

Completed and washed birthday socks, in the post today. Unfortunately, I forgot to retrieve them from the wash and Chris hung them up to dry. I rescued them last night, attempted to smooth them out a little bit, with not much success. So Anne will receive a creased pair of socks.

Self striping sock yarn, top down, stocking stitch with a heel flap, very quick to knit. I'm sure the yarn came from Polly. Thanks Polly, Anne will love these!

Sockapaloozer still not sorted, although I was very impressed with Mary's socks at Libertys last night. She's doing the IK pattern, Retro Rib, and it's looking good! (Check out the budding photographers!). I started a retro rib last night in Lorna's laces, but just don't like the way it's turning out, too busy. I'll pop into JL tonight and pick up some Cygnet yarn. One way or another, this sock will be started by the weekend. Did you know that you can telephone John Lewis in Oxford Street (didn't work at PJs) and they can tell you if they have a specific yarn in stock and in which colours? I didn't even need to speak to the wool dept.

I'm pretty socked-out at the moment. I have never spent so many days just sock knitting.

Off to finish work now, and hopefully, I'll get an album up over the weekend of my FOs - nothing new, just photos from the blog.

February 16, 2005

First decision: which yarn to use? I'd pretty much decided to go with either koigu, lorna's laces, or Cherry Tree Hill.

Due to the fact that I'm at work, I can't show you the koigu, or a couple of the shades of LL that I have in stash. But here at work are three of the choices, from left, CTH, LL#1, LL#2.

My sockapaloozer pal isn't a shrinking violet, so my first choice of colours was LL#1, aka Flames. Looks good on the skein, looks good wound into a ball, but it's very busy on the needles. I've tried the broadripple pattern, but it looks crap. The other option was the retro rib from IK, but this might not show up the texture in a noisy yarn. My IK isn't here yet, so I can't look at the cabled sock in this issue. Then again, how is a simple cabled sock to knit? Excuses, excuses! I'm just undecided actually! I think it's because I so want to make a nice sock, that nothing's good enough. This is the perfectionist personality coming out now. Tonight! I will start again tonight!

As I've not had much success with my knitting, I'll post a link here for a funny, impractical item of knitwear. No pattern, sorry!

Sock Stash (office)Remember my office stash? I've been quietly trying to sort out the stash today. Just one little tiny cubboard behind my desk. Just containing sock yarn, very pertinent to this sockapaloozer post. Here it is (and apologies to Polly, who brought me some back from Austria, as it is now enmeshed in the sock stash, and I can only remember two balls of yarn ! I'm pretty certain that the birthday socks, soon to be captured on camera, are from Polly's trip as well)Shot #1. shot #2 shot #3 Opal yarns Elann yarns Misc yarns

I obviously love sock knitting more than I thought. 27 pairs of socks, from the office stash. Plus some more somewhere here. Yikes. And I hope I have distracted everyone away from my non knitting post.

February 14, 2005

Sunday morning saw me sewing on the buttons for the baby cardigan. The sleeves still look pretty short to me, but this little baby might like 3/4 sleeves. A neutral colour, I'm not sure the new mum will go for something bright.

Notice the right sleeve. This was knitted three times before I was satisfied, hence the crinkled look. This will right itself once the cardigan's washed.

Click to enlarge if you must.

Sock #2 for C's mum is coming along nicely, just turned the heel, onto the foot now. Hopefully I will finish this before more sock yarn arrives.

And as I'm at work with my camera, here's a view of the pub. Next door. Really really next door. As in, I'm shooting the photo from our doorstep. Great for after work drinks.

This is the side view, the main entrance is on the street. In summer we have a crowd of people on our doorstep. And when it's raining, we've even had cheeky drinkers try to come in for shelter!

Does anyone else use the category sections of typepad? I'm thinking of sorting out my posts, so that I can pull up pictures of FOs.

February 12, 2005

Just. Still on small projects. Still no FOs! I mentioned to Jill that I'd be starting something else over the weekend, but I've not got any inspiration, and that little voice inside my head is advising me not to start anything else until I have finished off a couple of socks and a baby cardigan.

Well, the baby cardigan is pretty close to finishing. I've just got the sleeves to sort out. It's difficult, just how long are new babies arms? I know they can't go over their head. I'm thinking of maybe doing a sleeve that's about 5 inches long. I've already knitted one, but will be re-knitting it tonight, making it not as narrow and more boxy. Just two sleeves, some seaming, and four buttons to sew on. I used to hate buttonholes, but now regularly do the one row buttonhole, courtesy of Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla G-R. (Sally Melville has a one row buttonhole in the Purl book, but I prefer PGR's method of finishing the buttonhole)

(Note - buttonholes are not sewn on wonky and it's not blocked at all)

See how thin and insubstantial the sleeve looks? Makes it look like a baby jacket rather than a small cardigan.

I'm making my photos smaller in size. I think you can click on it to enlarge (yikes, that will show up the uneveness) but it saves time to do this.

Chri's mum's b'day socksThis may be from Polly, or it may be from my stash! Lovely bright colours, very apt for someone celebrating their 69th birthday again!These need to be finished, washed, dried and posted by Friday, which means that I need to finish the actual knitting by Wednesday (no chance on Thursdays, I'll be too busy chatting at Libertys)

Six Sock KAL Knitted in yellow, blue and white. With yellow toes, white heel and blue top. Alison asked about the pattern - it's the fifth pattern in the six sock kal . If you check out the link, there's a photo, which usually changes each day. In March, the pattern link will be posted to the designer's homepage, so anyone not on the six sock kal will be able to knit this stashbuster sock. It doesn't have to be three colours, make it more, or just two.

No smoking is costing me a pretty packet. Last week, week 1, I bought a new digital camera. Our weekly shopping bill was large, all the extra food & the scented candles. This week it's large again, we're topping up the wine rack ready for being able to have a good drink.

And I've fallen off the yarn diet. I just want to buy myself treats all of the time! 1) monthly sock club (doesn't really count, but I will list it) - beautiful grey alpaca wool I think (it's at work)2) three balls of the new rowan yarn - a ball of the 4ply cashsoft and two balls of the dk cashcotton. 3) three balls of wool cotton (whatever) for the above baby cardigan.4) three pairs of wooden dpns from here (just ordered)5) from get knitted, (I'll count this as one purchase!) the 4ply rowan cafe book for the new soft yarns, 2 socks worth of lorna's laces, 1 socks worth of cherry hill supersock, and 2 socks worth of the new opal rodeo. I spied Jill's sock at libertys, great colours.

Speaking of socks, whatever happens, however many wonderful, interesting, time consuming wips I start tomorrow, I will start my sockapalooza socks next week. Promise. Still no idea, but I'm definitely erring on the side of texture. Have you seen the reprinted Socks for Sandals and Clogs by Anna Zilboorg? Lots of wonderful ideas in there. Wouldn't it be great to knit a clog sock, with bobbles up the back? (I'll probably opt for simple and not in-your-face socks!). It's time to surf the sockapalooza links again. If my pal has a blog (my secret pal, knitting pour moi) then I've not come across it yet; those little clues that bloggers are giving out areb't triggering any recollections from my sign up email!

February 09, 2005

God, isn't it boring just working on small stocking stitch projects? I've been trying to work on just three things this week: Six Sock KAL sock, a plain birthday sock, and a stocking stitch baby jacket. How easy is that? How super quick? Three small projects. I can knit a baby jacket in an evening. I can certainly knit a plain, small sock in an evening. But my progress has been poor. I've done half a baby sleeve tonight, the whole evening.

Think I need a good book, that will get me knitting.

Progress photos (as such)

Plain birthday ankle socks. My excuse is that I've had to stand up on the train journey into work, and I've been too busy kipping on the tube back home.

Baby cardigan - part of the top down sleeve.

Six Sock KAL sock. The distortion in the patterning is not because I've messed up the no-jog pattern, just where I've increased for the gusset. They really aren't as obvious in real life.

Note to Sockapaloozer pal: none of these socks are clues to my preferences. You can knit me anything sock shaped, any pattern and any colour. These socks are chosen purely by what was at hand at the time. I happened to have yellow, blue and white in the stash, at the top. The red striped socks may be knitted from Polly's donation, not sure, Polly? Don't the six sock KAL socks remind you of Sweden? Maybe I'll rename them.

I've bought a new camera at last. One of the downsides (apart from the fact that I don't quite know how to use it yet) is that if I use the higer resolution setting of 5 mps, it is taking just ages and ages to upload to typepad. I've just tested by uploading (and deleting) one of my 2.1 mp photos and that only takes about 3 seconds! I don't know if it will take longer to download now, or how much space it uses. I've made the pics slightly smaller (but I think you can click on them to enlarge, I'm just about to find out) - that doesn't really help. I might try really small photos next time. Or taking them with less resolution (note the non technical wording here, I am not camera savvy, though my first love is a photographer and painter). We shall see. There's a few extras on this one. There's even an angel setting! I have no bloody idea what that's about. There's a night setting, so it's nothing to do with darkness.

Off to Libertys tomorrow, must buy some buttons. Anyone know if their new stock is in yet? In fact, has anyone had their #37 magazine? I still haven't played with cashcotton and cashsoft from last week! I feel a larger project coming on. Don't mention the ribbed swing jacket, Agnes or the Shoalwater shawl! Still not smoking. Day eight. I may be less hyper in the Art Bar Cafe tomorrow!